While her declared ambitions of a knockout victory failed, it was still a very successful evening for World Boxing Federation (WBF) Womens World Light Flyweight Champion Ana Arrazola as she made her first title defense against compatriot Maria Del Refugio Jimenez Cruz on Saturday in Celaya, Mexico.
Jimenez Cruz proved to be a very game challenger, as she pressured the defending champion and often found a home for her right hand. However, Arrazola worked well with the jab and used her superior boxing skills to take control from the fourth round on.
None of the boxers looked close to going down at any point of the fight, and it remained competitive for the full ten rounds. In the end judges Martin Godinez, Sergio Gonzalez and Manuel Brizuela scored it 98-92, 99-91 and 100-90 in favor of Arrazola. Referee was Jesus Salcedo.
This was a rematch of their 2011 original encounter where Arrazola won an action-packed bout on points, and this time she was also made to work hard despite the wide scores of the judges. The winner improved her record to 19-9-2 (13), while Jimenez Cruz dropped to 10-7 (0).
The WBF world title fight was the main event of the first promotion staged by Hector Garcia’s Best Talent Promotions, and kicked off the season of what will be a weekly series of shows transmitted throughout Mexico by TVC Sports Network.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
